Tumbling humpty dumpty break-up wall toy



Dec. 12, 1961 M. M. NEUMANN TUMBLING HUMPTY DUMPTY BREAK-UP WALL TOY Filed Oct. 12, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

M/L as M. Mew/AM A 77oz N Y Dec. 12, 1961 M. M. NEUMANN 3,01

TUMBLING HUMPTY DUMPTY BREAK-UP WALL TOY Filed Oct. 12, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 111/1 55 M Nil/MA MV United States Patent 3,012,367 TUMBLING HUMPTY DUMPTY BREAK-UP WALL TOY Miles M. Neumann, Rte. 1, Stoddard, Wis. Filed Oct. 12, 1959, Ser. No. 845,987 4 Claims. (Cl. 46-145) This invention relates to a tumbling Humpty Dumpty break-up wall toy, and has for an object to provide a toy that will simulate the action of the well-known rhyme about Humpty Dumpty, particularly in that the wall may be caused to break and cause the Humpty Dumpty figure to tumble and break and fall apart, yet the wall and the figure can be readily reassembled for repeated use.

A further object of this invention is to provide a breakup figure toy and a break-up wall, which may be assembled so that the figure toy may be placed on the wall and then, by operating a releasable latch, the wall and the toy may be caused to disassemble and tumble down.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a wall and figure toy each made up of readily assembled and disassemblable substantially non-breakable parts, that is, non-breakable in ordinary usage in the operation of this toy, which can be used to make a wall supporting a Humpty Dumpty figure and when operated, the wall and the figure will break up and come tumbling down.

In brief, this invention comprises a wall and a figure toy resembling the character Humpty Dumpty, or of any other character, each of which are made up of a number of readily separable and reassemblable separate parts, with a mechanism built into the base of the wall for causing the wall to be knocked down, causing the figure toy resting thereon to likewise come tumbling down and fall apart.

With the above and related objects in view, this invention consists in the details of construction and combination of parts, as willbe more fully understood from the following description, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is an elevational view of the tumbling Humpty Dumpty wall toy of this invention.

FIG. 2 is a top plan View of FIG. 1.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are sectional views on lines 33 and 4-4 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is an exploded view of the Humpty Dumpty figure toy.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view on line 6-6 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 7 is an end view on line 77 of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is an exploded view of the leg and foot elements of the figure toy.

FIGS. 9 and 10 are top plan views on lines 9-9 and 1010 of FIG 8.

There is shown at 10 the break-up wall toy of this invention comprising an assembled wall 11 and an assembled Humpty Dumpty figure toy 12. The wall 11 comprises a longitudinally extending base block 14 of a length sufiicient to support the entire wall 11, and is recessed in its top surface centrally thereon as at 16. Secured to the front edge of the recess 16 are a pair of hinges 18 on which is secured a door 20, the door 20 being of a size to fit within and substantially fill the recess 16 so that the upper surface of the door 20, when entirely received within the recess 16, has its plane coinciding with the plane of the upper surface of the remaining portions of the base block 14.

Centrally and somewhat forwardly of the recess 16 in base block 14, there is a counterbore recess 22 within which is rotated a double coil spring 23 secured at its outer ends by wood screws 26 within the recess 22. Extending from the inner ends of the coil spring portion 23 is a V-shaped lever 24 whose end portion 30 extends beyond the rear edge of the recess 16 of base block 20- 1 and is releasably held beneath a tongue 32 of a manually operable release latch 34 hinged at 36 to a supporting bracket 38 mounted on the rear face of base block 14, the lever end portion 30 being bent downwardly as at 42 below the surface of the floor of recess 16.

As is apparent, manually depressing the latch 34 will cause its tongue 32 to rise up and release the lever end portion 30, whereby the spring 24 will be biased upwardly by its coiled spring portions 23 to cause the door 20 pivoted on hinges 18 to rise upwardly above the plane of the block 14.

Assembled over the base block 14 and over the door 20 held within the recess 16 by the latch 34, are a plurality of blocks 44 of various sizes, but all have prefer ably rectangular sides, one dimension of each block being preferably that of the thickness of the base block 14, so as to avoid having the reassembly too complicated.

The blocks 44 are all made up of substantially nonbreakable material, that is, material that would not break in the ordinary usage of this toy. When the blocks are assembled, they provide a wall having a plane upper sur;- face, made up, of course, of the several various sized blocks, and the central blocks located over the door 20 include some of the smaller blocks, such as particularly pointed out at 46, 48 and 50.. The blocks, when assembled, will be assembled as shown, with their vertically joined faces in various staggered relations so as to provide the appearance of a rustic wall and, of course, the blocks will be painted in various suitable colors, preferably with a non-toxic paint, because the toy is intended for use by children, as well as by adults.

When the wall has been completely assembled, the break-up figure toy 12 is placed on the top of the wall centrally thereof over the door 20.

The Humpty Dumpty figure toy is made up of various pieces as shown in FIGS. 5 to 10 inclusive. The body portion 52 is made up substantially in the shape of an egg and of four pieces, 54, 56, 58 and 60, the piece 54 having a projecting dowel 62 which may extend loosely into a dowel aperture 64 in piece 56. The intermediate bottom piece 58 is provided with a dowel 66 which e ttends both above the same at 68 and below at 70, the downwardly projecting end 70 of dowel 66 fits loosely into the dowel aperture 72 in the bottommost piece 60, and the upwardly extending end 68 fits loosely into the aperture 74 provided when the pieces 54 and 56 are as 'sernbled together. The bottommost piece 60 is provided with a fiat surface 76 of a size to fit comfortably on the top surface of the assembled wall 11. Arm simulating pieces 78, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, are provided with angularly extending dowels 80 arranged to extend into sockets 82, one socket being arranged in each of the upper body pieces 54 and 56, the joint 84 between body pieces 54 and 56 being at an angle to the length of the wall 11, as shown in FIG. 2.

Stubby leg portions 86 are provided with upwardly extending projections 88 set substantially as shown, and depending dowels 90 arranged to fit into sockets 92 in feet portions 94, likewise shaped substantially as shown. The dimensions of the dowels and projecting pieces and of the sockets that receive them are such that they will retain and hold the parts together while in assembled position, but are sufficiently loose thereon that they will readily come apart when the figure toy 12 tumbles down from the wall to land on the floor 96.

In operation, the door 20 is hinged downwardly in the base block 14 until its lever 24 is caught beneath the latch tongme 32, thus holding the door recessed within the base block 14. Then, the wall 11 is assembled by placing the blocks thereover in a manner to form a somewhat rustic appearance, as shown, and the Humpty Dumpty figure toy has its parts assembled by inserting the dowels in their appropriate openings and then is placed so as to be supported on its flat bottom 76 at the center of the top of the wall 11 over the door 20. The operator, the child or adult playing with it, then depresses the latch lever 34 releasing the lever 24 which causes the door 20 to pivot upwardly about its hinges 18. This causes at least the central tier of blocks 44 particularly those shown at 46,48, 50 and the adjoining blocks and those supported thereabove to fly upwardly and forwardly, causing the figure toy 12 to likewise fly upwardly and forwardly and then fall down to the fioor 96, the shock of the fall being suflicieut to cause the figure toy 12 to likewise be disassembled into its component parts. Thus, the action of the toy simulates that of the rhyme, that Humpty Dumpty falls down from the wfll, and breaks apart.

1 Although this invention has been described in considerable detail, such description is intended as being illustrative rather than limiting, since the invention may be variously embodied, and the scope of the invention is to be determined as claimed.

Having thus set forth and disclosed the nature of this invention, What is claimed is:

l. A break-up wall toy comprising a wall built of a plurality of various size blocks, a base on which said blocks are assembled, and an assembled break-up figure toy resting on said wall, said break-up figure toy comprising a plurality of readily separable parts, said base having a recess on its upper surface centrally thereof, a door hinged to said base within said recess, spring means biasing said door upwardly out of said recess, and manually releasable latch means holding said door against the biasing action of said spring means, whereby when said latch means is manually released, said door will be biased upwardly out of said recess against said blocks assembled thereoverto break up said wall and project said blocks of said well and said assembeld figure toy forwardly to cause said figure toy to tumble down and break up.

2. A tumbling Humpty Dumpty break-up wall toy and figure toy comprising a wall consisting of a rectangular base block having a recess centrally of its upper surface, a door, means hinging said door to said base block within said recess of said base block, manually releasable biasing means urging said door about its hinge means upwardly out of said recess, a plurality of blocks assembled on said base block and'over said hinged door, and a break-up assembled Humpty Dumpty figure toy resting on the top of said wall centrally, thereof, said wall and said figure toy each being of substantially non-breakable separable parts adapted to be readily reassembled, whereby when said biasing means is manually released, said door hinges upwardly to cause said wall to be disassembled and be projected forwardly, and also project said Humpty Dumpty figure toy forwardly to cause said Humpty Dumpty figure toy to tumble down and break up.

3. The toy and figure toy of claim 2, said manually releasable biasing means comprising a lever extending beneath said recessed door and biased to move upwardly, said lever extending beyond said base block, and a retractable latch member secured on said base block to releasably extend over said extending lever.-

V 4. A break-up wall toy comprising a wall built of a plurality of various size blocks, an assembled break-up Humpty Dumpty'figure toy resting centrally on said wall, a longitudinally extending rectangular base on which said blocks are assembled, said base having a recess on its upper surface centrally thereof, a door hinged to one longitudinal side of said base within said recess, spring means biasing and'pivoting said door upwardly out of said recess, and manually releasable latch means on the opposite longitudinal side of said base holding said door against the biasing action of said spring means, whereby, when said latch means is manually released, said door will be biased upwardly out of said recess against said blocks assembled thereover to break up said wall and project said disassembled blocks and said Humpty Dumpty figure toy forwardly over-the hinged side of said base to cause said Humpty Dumpty figure toy to tumble and break apart.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,282,358 Arden Oct. 22, 1918 2,433,540 Wright Dec. 30, 1947 FOREIGN PATENTS 966,289 France Mar. 1, 1950 

